Reflective display has a wide application prospect due to having the following advantages: no harm on eyes, no need for a backlight module, stable display, energy saving and environment friendly.
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration of a conventional reflective liquid crystal panel. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the reflective liquid crystal panel comprises a first display substrate and a second display substrate disposed opposed to each other and a liquid crystal layer 150 filled between the two display substrates. Herein the first display substrate comprises a first transparent substrate 110, a color filter layer, a black matrix 121, a flattened layer 130, and a common electrode layer 140. The first display substrate is generally referred to as a color filter substrate and configured for providing colors for the liquid crystal panel. The second display substrate comprises a second transparent substrate 180, on which a plurality of Thin Film Transistors (TFTs) arranged as a matrix (not shown in the figure), a reflection layer 160, a pixel electrode layer 170 and signal lines (including a gate line and a data line and not illustrated in the figure) are formed. The second display substrate is generally referred to as an array substrate and configured for controlling rotation of the liquid crystals to achieve different grayscales. Herein, the color filter layer comprises a plurality of red color filters 122, green color filters 123 and blue color filters 124 disposed in opening regions of the black matrix 121. The pixel electrode layer 170 comprises a plurality of pixel electrodes, which are disposed in correspondence with projection regions of the red color filters 122, the green color filters 123 and the blue color filters 124.
When the reflective liquid crystal panel operates, ambient light sequentially passes through the color filter layer, the flattened layer 130 and the common electrode layer 140 after entering a side of the first transparent substrate 110, and then it is incident on the liquid crystal layer 150. At this time, the pixel electrodes in the pixel electrode layer 170 generate a pixel voltage such that an electrical field is created between the pixel electrode layer 170 and the common electrode layer 140. Driven by the electrical field, the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer start to rotate, thereby controlling the transmission of the externally-incident light through the liquid crystal layer. The liquid crystal layer 150 can therefore allow the light to pass or block the light.
When the liquid crystal layer 150 allows the ambient light to pass, the light will be incident on the reflection layer 160 and reflected by the reflection layer 160. The light reflected by the reflection layer 160 will sequentially pass through the liquid crystal layer 150, the common electrode layer 140, the flattened layer 130, the color filter layer and the first transparent substrate 110. Eventually, the light exits from the reflective liquid crystal panel and get color images displayed.
FIG. 2 is a reflected light path diagram of the conventional reflective liquid crystal panel. As illustrated in FIG. 2, light entering the left side of the display device exits from the right side after being reflected by the reflection layer illustrated in FIG. 1 and can not enter the frontal active display area. As a result, the light usage efficiency is relative low.
Meanwhile, the conventional liquid crystal panel has an extra reflection layer in comparison with a regular liquid crystal panel, which increases the thickness of the liquid crystal panel and thus can not meet the requirement of being thin and narrow for liquid crystal panels.